I'm thinking of Marilyn Monroe's rendition of "Happy Birthday" to JFK. Now that was really seductive

Ran 13k yesterday at Lake Gardens.

I'm 32 years old. But I don't feel 32 years old. Hopefully my looks belies my age.

Had a nice lunch with my parents today.

Next up- dinner. The folks will be meeting me at my apartment at 730pm. If I can get off work early-ish today, I think I can manage a quick 7km.

Plan to run tomorrow morning but we'll see how I feel. Ill be watching the Germany-Argentina match tonight. It will be an exciting match, although I support neither.

Have a good weekend everyone.

I'll be 32 years old (or young?) soon

Wasn't able to run yesterday, although the plan was to run at lake Gardens. Left the office too late. I was due to pick Mrs Rabbit up at airport by 915pm. Combined with the fact that I was having dinner at Subang, taking into account the travelling time to Subang and subsequently to KLIA, I knew that I couldn't even put in 20 minutes worth of running. Oh well

I do hope to run today. Apart from dinner with the in-laws at 830pm tonight, I should be free.

28th June

Managed to leave the office at 630pm. Kenny Tan smsed to tell me he was running at KLCC at 715pm. Since Mrs Rabbit was away, I thought -"Why Not" and headed to KLCC. Traffic was surprisingly smooth apart from the crawl at Sungai Besi/Jalan Tun Razak. Arrived in good time and was at the park by 7:00pm. Met Ronnie, Dinesh, Fook and BoSe. It was good to be running at KLCC again. Didn't get to see Jamie though, who presumably ran a quick few laps before going back.

In total, we ran 10 laps at a fairly easy pace. Workout ended only around 830pm.

I'm probably running at Lake Gardens today.

MON-TUES

Managed to leave the client's office earlier than expected and I proceeded to Bukit Aman to meet Yaziz and Adam, whose plans were to run 2 easy loops. We promptly did so. Total mileage- 11km.

Planned to run early this morning after dropping off Mrs Rabbit at KL Sentral station but a bad stomach which struck me about 430am (and a restless night), causing me to sit on throne for a good 30 minutes, put paid to those plans. When the alarm rang at 6am, I was still in dire need of sleep. After dropping Mrs Rabbit off at the station, I went back to sleep.

It could be a busy day today but I still hope to get in a workout at 7pm.

Lagat and Fleshman Prevail Over Deep 5000m Fields

Taken off Running Times

***************************************************************************

June 24, 2006


INDIANAPOLIS (23-Jun) -- Bernard Lagat and Lauren Fleshman each won their first U.S. 5000m titles here tonight over deep fields on the third day of the AT&T USA Outdoor Championships at the Michael A. Carroll Track & Soccer Stadium at Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis.

Lagat, who won two Olympic medals at 1500m for Kenya before becoming a U.S. citizen in 2004, faced the deepest distance field of these championships, his first as an American. Shaking off the effort he had put in a few hours before winning his heat of the 1500m qualifying round, Lagat did not react immediately when Ryan Hall moved into the lead on the second lap of the race. Hall was not satisfied with the 65 second opening 400m, which also surprised Lagat.

"It was not what I was thinking," said Lagat who had expected early laps closer to 60 seconds.

Quickly, Lagat adapted his strategy. Along with Adam Goucher, Dathan Ritzenhein, and Matt Tegenkamp, Lagat caught up to Hall by the 2-K mark (about 5:22) and was content to just sit on the Hall, the reigning U.S. 12-K cross country champion. Through 3-K (8:01.8), Hall continued to lead and the pace remained sluggish.

In the fourth kilometer, Lagat moved into the lead on a 68-second lap, and Hall began to drift back and out of contention. Tegenkamp, the former University of Wisconsin star, looked the smoothest, but Ritzenhein was determined to contend for the title. "Ritz" pushed with 800m to go, reeling off a 59.2 second lap, but it was Tegenkamp who was in the lead coming down the backstraight with Ritzenhein, Lagat and Goucher close behind. Calmly, Lagat was regathering himself after a few tough laps.

"I was struggling with six laps to go," said Lagat who pointed to the right side of his abdomen where he had developed a painful stitch.

No matter. There was work to be done, and coming off of turn-3, Lagat quickly began to work his way up to Tegenkamp, leaving Ritzenhein and Goucher behind. With 120m to go, he came around Tegenkamp's right shoulder and began his drive for home.

"It's tough," said Tegenkamp of seeing Lagat on his shoulder that close to the finish. "He's a world class runner. He'll probably run 12:40 later this summer."

Lagat pushed all the way to the tape, running his last lap in under 58 seconds, to claim victory in 13:14.32. Tegenkamp finished second in 13:15-flat, a personal best. Dathan Ritzenhein, who will be moving up to the marathon distance in the fall, finshed third in 13:16.61, also a personal best.

"I wanted to finish as high as possible," said Ritzenhein who also said he had no particular time goal. He ran this race with a minimum of speed training, but has a very solid base. "I'm really strong right now," he added.

Goucher, who many saw as the greatest threat to Lagat, finished fourth in 13:18.93. He was downcast.

"I'm disappointed," he said "Everything just wasn't there and it sucks."

Early leader Hall faded to 8th place in 13:40.55.

FLESHMAN USES SPRINT TO BEAT GOUCHER

Blake Russell took the women's 5000m through the first 400m in 72 seconds, and remained at the front through through 2000m (6:03.3). She was closely followed by eight women, including Carrie Tollefson, Kara Goucher, Sarah Hall, Marla Runyan, Amy Begley, Renee Metivier, Jen Rhines and Fleshman. There was some attrition through 3000m (9:09.90) with Russell still leading. Metivier was the first to fall back, then went Runyan, Hall and Begley.

Fleshman was sizing up the race, and with one kilometer to go (12:18.69) she reacted when Goucher pushed hard and broke up the race, taking a small lead on Fleshman.

"'I've been here before,'" Fleshman remembered telling herself. "'I know what to do.'"

With 110 meters to go, Fleshman turned on the speed, and went around Goucher, getting the win in 15:12.37. Goucher took second in 15:14.13, a career best.

"You just have to tip your hat to Laura," said Alberto Salazar, the former marathon great who coaches the Gouchers. "She ran great."

Russell finished third in 15:19.07, and Tollefson was fourth in 15:23.49.

# # # # # #

Jorge Torres, making his 10,000m debut, upset Olympic Marathon silver medalist Meb Keflezighi to win his first open U.S. track title. Off of a conservative first half (14:13.21), Torres pulled away from Keflezighi and a resurgent Dan Browne with about 200m to go until the finish. Striding smoothly, he won going away in 28:14.43 to Keflezighi's 28:18.74 and Browne's 28:19.32.

"I knew I was in decent shape coming into this; I can't say I knew I was going to win," said Torres. "This is my first 10-K on the track, and with 1-K to go I knew I was in contention to win it. It was a good way to win my first national championship."

Keflezighi, who tore a thigh muscle at the 2005 World Championships 10,000m, was satisfied with his first track race since then.

"This is my first track race since last August," said Keflezighi. "It's early season."

Abdi Abdirahman, the defending champion who led for much of the race, was forced to drop out in the ninth kilometer with an injury to his right calf. "I was feeling good until eight laps to go," said Abdirahman.

Amy Rudolph, running in only her second 10,000m, beat Sara Slattery in the final sprint from 120 meters out to win the women's title in 32:25.56 to Slattery's 32:29.97. Samia Akbar was third in 32:41.84, also a personal best.

"I'm over the moon," said an elated Rudolph. "I'm so happy."

Weekend workouts

Depending on the day I want to include, I may or may not have run at least 70 km last week. Allow me to explain- if I include last Sunday as part of my workout, I would have run a total of- (Sunday- PJ Half- 21km, Monday- 7km, Tuesday 10km, Wednesday 11km, Thursday 10km, Friday 5km and Saturday 10km), making it an aggregate of 74km. But, if I want to regard Monday as the start of the week, then, if I include yesterday's workout (12km), it would total 65km, i.e. 5 km short of my planned 70km. No matter. In any event, I've had a decent week as far as workouts are concerned. I haven't been able to put in this mileage for some time, so it was quite satisfying.

I ran with Ron and gang on Saturday morning. Although the initial plan was to run 9 laps, After the 3rd lap, I started having some stomach cramps and had to make a pit stop at the public toilet by the lake. After spending a good 10 minutes defecating, I lost my running rhythm and decided to stop for the morning. Headed up to Bukit Aman to hang out with Jamie before going back to the Lake Gardens. Dropped Richard and Ronnie off at Bukit Aman for their showers before we proceeded to Jalan Alor for breakfast.

Later in the evening I had a 4km walk with Mrs Rabbit.

Sunday was the usual. Ran 12km at Lake Gardens before proceeding to the Lake Club gym for some strengthening workouts.

After the euphoria of England's victory against Ecuador (England's perfomance was completely unconvincing, in my opinion), here we are back in the office on Monday morning again.

My plan is to run this evening (obviously). Hopefully I'll be able to leave the office by 6pm, or shortly after.

Great Eastern Women 10k

Encourage your lady friends or family to run the 2006 Great Eastern Women 10k organized for women by women (and some fortunate men!) on Sunday, 29 October 2006.

Register online at www.women10k.com.

It's Fr-i-i-i-i-i-day

Ran 10k yesterday at the Lake Gardens. Approximate pace- 5 mins per km. This morning I had intended to run at least 10k but ended up shuffling for 5kms. I was tired.

It's highly unlikely that I'll be running this evening- the boss wants to buy dinner, believe it or not!

Will be running tomorrow morning with the other PMs. Starts 730am, Lake Gardens, Children's playground. Join us if you're free.

Wednesday workout

After the stresses of work yesterday, I drove to Lake Gardens and met with KNN. Ran 10k at an easy pace. Then dinner with KNN at Choy Kee restaurant- good stuff. I've been frequenting these fellas for almost 20 years now. Their fried rice ranks as one of the best fried rice I've tasted. And I've tasted fried rice served in Australia, Canada, Singapore, UK, USA, Thailand, Indonesia, France and Holland. None of them compare. But as they say, taste is relative. That's my opinion.

Stayed over in the Subang house. Believe it or not, I had a dream that I met up with the venerable Coach Chan CHee Seng, watching fellas like Eugene doing speed work on a special track. Guess running is also in my subconcious.

Plan- same as yesterday. Hope to get in at least 10k at Lake Gardens.

Have a good day ahead.

$%^& the boss

Ran a 7km with Lawrence and KNN on Monday.

Yesterday, managed to leave the office slightly earlier than usual to meet KNN at Bukit Aman. KNN told me that the plan would be to run the Federal Hill route. Apparently it was extremely challenging! I was looking forward to it.

The initial miles were normal- we ran through the Lake Gardens. The interesting part came when we took the underpass which leads you to the opposite side of the road. After negotiating some potentially dangerous portions (we were on the main road at a certain point, with the motor vehicles zooming by), we reached Federal Hill. The uphills/slopes there were absolute killers, at least for me. Some of the uphills/slopes were neverending. Worse of all was the uphill after the Caltex petrol station. I was practically reduced to walking. There were some downhills after that, but my lingering memory were the uphills. My calves killed me.

1:15 later, we were back at the Bukit Aman carpark. I was exhausted. The route was extremely challenging. I'd say that if you want to know whether you're in shape, you should use that route as a basis in determining that; perhaps in the form of a time trial.

Another day at work again today. This week has been particularly bad. Apparently I have been given a simple task which, although I feel I've done to the best of my abilities (and also after concurring with my colleagues on the issue), is not to the satisfaction of the boss. I've been at the receiving end of some major bollocking and it doesn't appear to be ending. I hate this, but it seems that once again, I'd have to assess my role in this firm. If, despite my efforts, my "best efforts" (or as my boss would see it, my "incompetent best") are not deemed good enough then there's really no point in continuing in this place. I will try and see if I can be placed under another boss, but that scenario appears unlikely.

Anyway, it's a good time for me to be hoping for divine intervention here. I'm at my wits end. Incidentally, this time last year I was faced with a similar situation, with another organisation. When will this ever end?

PJ Half

It is soooo good to be back in the racing scene!

I had decided to run the PJ Half marathon sometime last week. I have been steadily working my way back to fitness, and when the opportunity to take another runner's bib came by, I found it hard to resist (despite my initial reservations). I wanted to test the waters, to see how well (or otherwise) my training of the past month has gone. I collected my bib from Tey on Saturday evening. Thereafter, I proceeded to Lake Gardens for a quick 3kms.

Anyway, to the morning of the race- After waking up at 5am, and taking slightly longer than usual time in the toilet, I picked up Kenny (PM27) at Cititel Mid Valley around 545am. We arrived at Kelana Jaya around 6am. After dropping off my reporting card, I did some stretching, and started seeing some familiar faces. I was standing at the back of the starting line and saw Jamie, Kenneth, Kelvin, Jacky and others. It was great to see everyone again, at the starting line. Words cannot describe the feeling of comrade-ship among runners, the calm before the storm, the final intake of breath before the deep dive.

The gun sounded and off we went. Not entirely certain with my fitness, my plan was to run slowly at the start, push a little harder in the middle miles and hopefully maintain that pace to the end of the race. But somehow, I felt more psyched up than usual- perhaps its because this was my first race of the year, and I ran at a what I felt was a reasonably quick pace, around a 5:00 per km. Kenny was pacing with me. was comfortable all the way from the start, to the uphill, onto the Federal Highway, the u-turn at the Sunway Bridge and onto the Federal Highway before heading up the fly-over to the route that leads to the old airport. I was slowly but surely overtaking other runners.

The race itself was fairly uneventful in that sense. I felt strong and managed to maintain a fairly even pace throughout the race. Having said that though, after the u-turn at Terminal 3, feeling strong, I sensed that it was a good time to subtly increase the pace because other runners appeared to be suffering and what better time to overtake them?

I lost count the number of runners I overtook, but the real "drama" came in the last 800 meters of the race. There were 2 runners ahead of me. Let's call them A and B. A was running slightly further ahead, and B was behind. Both were within my grasp. I reined them in, but B started really irritating me because he was cutting corners (taking shorter cuts) to finish the race. Instead of taking the roads, he jumped onto the grass to take a slightly shorter route. Not much you might imagine, but when you're raggedly running someone down at the end of the race, every inch counts. He did the same thing as we approached the stadium. Instead of running on the slip road onto the track, he jumped over the kerb, and ran on the grass. I was getting quite mad at the time. 3 of us were running together on the track, with A and B ahead of me, and me quietly behind them. With 200 meters to go, I made my move and zoomed past B. B quickly realised that I was passing him and made an attempt to sprint as well, but he couldn't catch up. I then overtook A, but A was much stronger and in the last 50 meters, just about had enough in the tank to finish ahead of me by a stride.

Finishing time- 1:44 and change. Position- 59th.

I was quite satisfied with my performance, as I had just returned to "serious" running a little over one month ago. With some work, I believe that I can run faster. Lake Gardens is an excellent place for those who want to get back into shape, to stay in shape, or to improve their fitness. I certainly benefitted from running there; in all honesty, the PJ Half route was fairly easy compared to some of the routes around the Lake Gardens area.

After the run we took some photos and hung out for a bit, before getting from the KNN man my new toy- the Nike Triax watch. Beeeeautiful stuff. Spent some time playing around with it and reading the manual.

Anyway, back to reality-it's another looong week of work. Hopefully there's time for me to run.

Unconvincing performance by England

Man, I am knackered. With only 3 hours of sleep (after watching the England vs Trinidad & Tobago match which ended at 2:00am), I had to wake up early to fetch the wife to KL Sentral station. She was due to catch a flight to Bangkok. After dropping her off at the station, I headed to the gym. Did about 35 minutes of cycling on the stationery bike, before proceeding to do a circuit workout- 2 sets each of leg presses, leg extensions (is that what it's called??), calf workouts, followed by military presses, bicep curls, back workouts. Finished my gym session by 8:00am. Now I am quite dead. More coffee needed for today.

Plus, I ran 18ks yesterday at the Lake Gardens. Managed to do it solo.

Well, TGIF indeed. Will run an easy one today if I'm feeling alright. At this point in time I only have one thing on my mind- putting my head on the pillow.

Good luck to those running this Sunday's PJ Half.

Dani California rocks

Wasn't able to run at Labuan because I didn't have the time. My day started at 545am. Got ready, had a cuppa coffee and Mrs Rabbit dropped me off at the KL Sentral station. Arrived at KLIA around 745am. Checked in and had one of the worst breakfasts ever- it was at a cafe in the airport. I ordered a Chicken Curry Pie, which was horrendous. I was thinking of getting a drink but when you consider the prices- RM4.00 for a small bottle of mineral water- I decided to hold on to my thirst and get my free drink on the plane.

The journey took 2.5 hours. I was seated at the rear end of the plane, and basically crashed almost the entire journey, although I wole up briefly to have breakfast that was served on the plane, which again, I must say, was absolutely a-w-f-u-l. I overheard the stewardess telling another passenger seated behind me that there were 2 choices- hash brown, eggs and sausage; or nasi lemak. I was considering the hash brown until I saw it- it looked bad, so without really thinking I opted for the nasi lemak instead. It turned out to be just as bad, if not worse. The combination of smell (why do airlines always have the same foul smell of food???) the soggy rice, the squids and overcooked green beans was just too much for me. Ok, maybe I'm a fussy eater. I prodded at the food, had 2 bites, and that was it.

Having arrived at Labuan (and still hungry) I went into another cafe located in the airport and had a cheese sandwich and a tuna sandwich. Even that was bad! I knew then that I was having a "bad food" day.

I arrived at the Labuan office around 12.30pm, and worked non-stop for about 5.5 hours. I left at 6pm, hungry again. The flight was at 710pm, and not wanting to eat the crap food at the Labuan airport cafe, I held on to my hunger and waited to eat the food on the plane. Maybe it'll be better this time, I thought. I was wrong. I had kuey teow which was in such a small portion (probably half the size of a packet of Maggi noodles)with some sweet n sour fish. B-A-D.

Arrived at KLIA around 930pm whereupon I bought a Whopper at Burger King. Now, that was good.

I was quite exhausted by then, hence no running.

The trip to Labuan was on Tuesday.

It was ok yesterday. I managed to run around 15k. For the first half I had Lawrence and 2 other guys with me (sorry I don't know your names). They ran around 7km and I decided to continue on my own. I'm quite happy that I'm able to run more often nowadays. Long may that continue.

My plan today is to run but will be heading out of the office later in the afternoon for a meeting. With the boss. And I'll be driving. Hopefully will start my run by 7pm.

Monday bluezzzzz

I hope everyone had a good weekend. Mine for one, was good, although I didn't get to run as much as I would have liked.

Met up with Jamie on Saturday morning at KLCC park to join him. My workout summary- although the mind was willing, the body wasn't. Eventually the mind agreed with the body. I arrived at the park around 840am. I saw the Jamie was already running, on to his 4th lap! I changed and joined him for another 2 laps, before he decided it was enough. Not surprising when you consider the weather- it was absolutely blazing hot, Singapore Marathon-like conditions. Not having a mate to continue to running with me, yes I admit it- I stopped. There were excuses for me to stop and I gave in to it. Oh well. I thought I'd be able to make up for it later in the evening.

I was in the apartment for most of Saturday. Headed to my parents' place for tea, before going for another quick run. I had to take the dog for a walk, so I decided to kill 2 birds with one stone and run as well. Me and Max (yup that's the dog's name) ran aboout 4k, at about 6 mins per k pace. Being the naturally gifted athlete he is, Max kept up with me with absolute ease. Apart from the last 200m when I put in a punishing kick, Max was able to stay with me!

After dinner I went home to catch the England-Paraguay match. England didn't play too well looked a tad flat in the 2nd half, but the end result was all that mattered and they won 1-0. I'd be concern of the fitness of the English players and wonder if they are able to sustain their strength and fitness throughout the tournament, which, if they manage to reach the final, (and that is wishful thinking) will see them playing 7 matches. The midfielders are the ones who cover the most ground- after all they are the link between the defence and midfield. The estimated mileage covered per match covered by the top class midfielders, range between 10-15k. So, they obviously have to be in shape.

Another match of note is the French Open. Some of you may know that I used to play alot of tennis when I was younger, and that I still follow the game, more-or-less. Last night televised the match-up of the French Open final between Roger Federer (possibly the greatest ever player to play the game), and the irrepressible Rafael Nadal. I was rooting for Federer because I'm a big fan of his game. Still with a 1-5 losing record against Nadal, I wasn't too optimistic. But although Nadal is the undisupted king of clay (on which surface the French Open is played on), if there was anyone capable of beating him, it would be Federer. Despite wining the 1st set 6-1, Nadal's determination and powerful shotmaking (especially of his thunderbolt forehand) wore down Federer, and Nadal went on to claim his 2nd successive French Open crown. I was disappointed, but I'm quite sure that Federer will eventually win the French Open. Once he truly figures out how to play Nadal, he will win the French Open.

Yesterday I made plans to run with KNN at Lake Gardens around 530pm but I was late and he decided to start on his own. Sorry man! Had things to do. In the end in ran about 10k, albeit at an easy pace.

I'll be heading to Labuan tomorrow morning (for a Due Diligence), with an early flight of 8:55am. Looks like I won't be running tomorrow, unless I finish my work early. Still, I'd have to find a suitable place to do some running there. We'll see.

TGIF

Friday is upon us. Isn't it wonderful? A week's worth of work is coming to an end, and hopefully, most of us will have more spare time to do the things that we enjoy. I for one plan to continue with my running. My workouts this week have been alright- on most days, I've been able to clock in around 10ks. The plan would be to at least run the same distance on Saturday and Sunday.

Have a good weekend. Hope to see you on the roads, time and schedule permitting.

LL Cool J's "Control Myself" is SUPA CATCHY

Suffered from the Monday blues and what better way to end it than running?

Prior to that, I visited Chen at the University Hospital. He was down with dengue fever for the past week or so. The hospital itself was jammed packed with many people. It was almost like a market. On my way to visiting him, I saw many elderly, sick people in wheelchairs. When I entered the ward which Chen was in, there were 3 other beds, but one in particular caught my eye- this Indian due was lying on the bed across Chen, unconcious, with an oxygen mask. The breathing was very laboured, somewhat similar to Darth Vader's as he was dying. I greeted Chen and asked him about that patient. Chen told me that the Indian dude was suffering from terminal cancer. That made me somewhat depressed. It was a very sobering experience.

Anyway, that aside, I'm happy to report that Chen is on the mend. In contrast to the description by Tey of Chen's condition on Saturday, he is looking much better. His stomach looked a little bloated, but otherwise he's alright. In fact, he is expressing hope that he'll be discharged by tomorrow.

Got back to the office and did more work, before heading to Lake Gardens. Ran with PM20 and Lawrence. Distance- about 10k. After the run, I saw Julian Chan as well. He looks cool with his new, longer hairdo. Haha

This morning I fetched Mrs Rabbit to KL Sentral. That was at 630am. Kenny Tan agreed to run with me, and we started around 710am. This morning's run is best described as running on mud with weights attached to my legs. Ran about 6 very slow ks, before having Nasi Lemak Tanglin.

Hope to run this evening again.

Pacemakers Anniversary Run 2006

When: 3rd June 2006

Where: KLCC Park

The latest Pacemakers Anniversary Run 2006 ("PAR 2006") took an interesting format. Unlike the previous 2 runs, this particular edition took the format of a relay. The total laps to be run was set at 8; Each team were designated 4 runners, each of slightly differing abilities. Each runner was to run 2 laps. It was all in the name of fun, and what the Pacemaker captain Ronnie See would term as "Der Spirit of Der Pia"- loosely translated to mean "The spirit of running ALL OUT". I'm reminded of a quote from the late Steve Prefontaine when he said "To give anything less than your best is to sacrifice the gift". Coincidentally, I was (partially) living the life of Prefontaine (i.e. partying to the wee hours of the morning notwithstanding, waking up early in the morning to run). Although I was running the PAR 2006 on Saturday morning, on Friday night I had to attend my wife's friend's birthday do at Zeta Bar, at the Hilton in KL Sentral. So there I was at Zeta bar from 1030pm onwards, having some drinks and enjoying the music. I managed to slip out unnoticed (probably because the wife's friends were already pretty inebriated at the time), around 1245am. By the time I finally hit the sack, it was about 130am. Set my alarm for 6am.

The song "True" from Spandau Ballet woke me up at 6am. You see, I had set the alarm tone on my handphone to be that song so that I'm woken up "gently". I hit the snooze button on my phone- or so I thought. Evidently I had hit the "Stop" button instead, so that the alarm would not ring again after the set time of 9 minutes. After lying in bed for a while I woke up only to find that it was already 640am- YIKES! I jumped out of bed and got myself ready.

A strong cup of coffee later, I was out the door. The song by LL Cool J featuring JLo was blaring from my car stereo. I love that song! It was certainly a good pick-me-up and gave me the impetus to run hard. Still, I wasn't too confident because I didn't feel I was in good enough shape. I had only started running "seriously" again in the last month, and the workouts at Lake Gardens have been rather topsy-turvy- good on some days, bad on other days.

Arrived at KLCC park around 715pm. It was good to be at the park which gave me so many good memories. The whole PM gang, our runs together, the bench. Sigh, when will I ever get to run there with the gang again?

Sentiments aside, I headed to the large group who were converged at around the 700 meter mark. The usual faces were there- but it is as if I haven't seen them in ages. Ronnie, Newton, Jamie, DK, Kevin Chow, the Penguins, Rachel, Cheong, Sim, Rohaizad, Jason, tey Eng Tiong, Kenny Tan, Khoo Yit Kiat, Ah Toh; practically everyone were there. After exchanging plesantries, I got into my running gear and did some warm up around the track. After the briefing by Ronnie, it was time to start the race.

I was in a team called "Der TNS Team" comprising Newton, Jamie and Cheong. We didn't have any specifc race strategy or plan- we were just there to have fun. Fun aside, our only strategy was to try to cover our designated 2 laps as quickly as we could. We were dressed in the Nike 15k 2004 vest, which was predominatly blue in colour, with some yellow colour around the shoulder area, down to the armpits. The following were the order of runners for Der TNS team- Cheong, Jamie, Newton and myself as the last runner.

The race started around 740am. By the end of the 1st lap, you could tell that the runners are really giving it their all. Our first runner, Cheong, was also hammering the pace! I'm not sure if he set a PR for his one lapper but he certainly looked like he was flying. It was then that I started getting concerned about my pacing. I have not run in KLCC park for some time so it was hard to gauge exactly how much effort I should put into each lap. So I started doing some strides, and though of running alongside Jamie (when his turn came up) just to get a feel of the pace.

Cheong arrived at the exchange-of-baton point, and his face showed it all- he was suffering. Next up- Jamie, who zoomed off. I decided to run the other way round of the KLCC track,i.e clockwise, and to tag along with Jamie around the 200 meters mark.

Having checked my watch, I knew that Der TNS team was about 1 plus minute behind our nearest "rivals", the Penguins.

So arrived Jamie at the 100 meters mark, and I ran alongside him. Man, he was really flying! At the completion of the lap, I asked for his time- 5:20 something, if I remember correctly. I thought to myself, "ok, now I know how much effort I need to expend for the 2 laps".

By the end of his 2nd lap, Jamie looking ragged (for obvious reasons) passed the baton to Newton. Once again, Newt was flying. By the time he passed the baton to me, he looked like he was crying! His face really looked that way.

So off I went. Although I had lost all hope of catching up on the Penguins, my plan was to gain around 30 seconds on them. When I started the run, I could see some 160 meters away that Eric (the final runner for the Penguins) was being paced by his 3 other teammates. I ran as hard as I could, and by the end of the first lap I was starting to suffer. Nearing the end of the first lap, I asked Jamie what my time was- 5:15. Sweet! I knew I was running at a decent pace. Still, onto the 2nd lap, I was starting to feel the pace and wondered if I could ever catch up on the Penguins. I trudged along, suffering until around the 100 meter mark (when the track is just downhill all the way towards the finish line) when I saw the Penguins around the 200 meter mark. I then got a 2nd wind and started flying. Past the 200 meters mark, I was rapidly gaining on them. I managed to overtake them around the 250 meter mark. By now, my breathing was laboured, my legs were stiffening, my body rebelling against my willpower and heart. I gave it one last all out push to the finish line.

Having completed the 2 laps, I was breathing very heavily, but felt a sense of satisfaction. I immediately checked my time for the 2nd lap, which was slower than the 1st lap, but still not too far off, the time being 5:28.

Der TNS team managed to finish in 6th place (out of 9 teams), which was excellent.

Trophies were handed to every team, with the main sponsor Tan Sri Rohaizad handing out the trophies. Der Young and dangerous team won the race. For more details, please visit Ronnie's site.

It was a well organised event; simple and sweet. Whoever came out with the ingenuine idea of using fax rolls and spraying it silver in colour as the baton, I salute you. I had absolutely no idea! I thought it was a small metal baton.

The runners hung around for a while after the race, chatting. It was a great way to spend the morning. I felt so alive again. I realised how much I missed the camarderie-ship of the runners.

By 10am most of us had left the park.

I took Jason to the KL Sentral LRT station on my way back.

On a sad note, Chen (PM8) is down with dengue. I wish him a speedy recovery. Certainly, all the runners would know that Chen never gives anything less than his best, so Chen if you're reading this, Der Spirit of Der Pia is for you. Get well soon!

World record for Defar

NEW YORK: A world record 5,000m performance by Ethiopian Olympic champion Meseret Defar on Saturday stole the spotlight from US sprinters Justin Gatlin and Marion Jones at the New York Grand Prix athletics meeting.

Co-world record-holder Gatlin had already won the 100m in 9.87sec and Jones had continued her comeback with a victory in the women's 100m when Defar took the track in the last event of the night.

Some fans were already headed for the exits as a light rain resumed, but the 22-year-old Defar was undaunted, clocking 14min 24.53sec to improve on the previous world record of 14:24.68 set by Elvan Abeylegesse of Turkey at Bergen, Norway, on June 11, 2004.

After pacemakers stepped off the track at 2,000 meters Defar, who won the 2004 Olympic 5,000m gold in 14:29.98, was on her own with only runners about to be lapped ahead of her.

She mustered a sprint finish to set the record.

“Even with the rain, the cold and the slippery track, I knew I could do it,” she said. “This was wonderful, of course, but it still can't compare to winning the Olympics.”

Ethiopian countrywoman Workitu Ayanu ran a distant second with America's Sara Slattery third in 15:24.01.

US athletics fans watching the meeting on TV missed her feat, since the live broadcast ended minutes before the women's 5,000m.

But they saw Gatlin post the fastest time ever achieved by an American runner in a US race.

And Jones, a five-time Olympic medallist battling back after two seasons marred by doping insinuations, subdued a top-class field, winning in 11.06sec.

Jamaica's Veronica Campbell, ranked number one in the world for the 100m last year by Track and Field News, was second in 11.11. American Torri Edwards, continuing her own strong comeback after a suspension, took third in 11.23.

American Lauryn Williams, the 2005 World champion, was just fifth in 11.44.

“This is just the beginning,” promised Jones, who'll run one race in Europe before returning for the USA National Championships June 21-25 in Indianapolis.

She made a strong start, took an early lead and held off Campbell over the final half of the race to win in her first US race in nearly a year.

“I want to compete against the best,” said Jones, who was greeted by a mix of cheers and boos when her name was announced. “This is what I love. I have a passion for it. I love this sport. Nobody is chasing me away.”

Gatlin's pursuers had solid credentials, too – but couldn't come close. None broke 10 seconds.

Tyson Gay was second in 10.04, world indoor 60-meter champion Leonard Scott was third in 10.07 in the eight-man, all-USA race.

“I felt great and the crowd was great, too,” said the Brooklyn-born Gatlin, who matched Jamaican Asafa Powell's 100m world record of 9.77 in Doha on May 12, is looking ahead to an eventual showdown with Powell later this year as well as a run at taking the world mark all to himself.

“It's virtual warfare,” Gatlin said. “You want to put your best show on and intimidate your opponent.

“Mother Nature pulled a loop on me. I thought it was going to be warm and sunny, but I came out and did what I had to do.”

The fastest men's 5,000 meters ever run in the United States - a 13:05.59 performance by Said Aouita of Morocco - had endured in the books since the 1984 Los Angeles Olympic Games.

But Kenya's Abraham Chebli eclipsed it with a loudly-cheered 13:04.56 decision over three countrymen - Micah Kogo, Benjamin Limo and Jones Cheruiyot.

Bahrain's Rashid Ramzi, double Helsinki gold medallist, left a strong international field far back as he won the mile in 3:53.55.